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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S6O-02184

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 May 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what criteria are used to determine how much funding should be spent on active travel projects.

Question reference: S6W-16491

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) pharmacists, (b) pharmacy technicians, (c) advanced nursing practitioners, (d) advanced paramedics, (e) mental health workers, (f) musculoskeletal physiotherapists and (g) community link workers have been recruited since 1 April 2022.

The requested information on how many pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have been recruited since 1 April 2022 can be found on the following link: Pharmacy report 2022 | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

The requested information on how many (c) advanced nursing practitioners and (e) mental health workers have been recruited since 1 April 2022 can be found on the following links:

Advanced nurse practitioners: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (LoSD (only N&M) & AHP) tab

Psychiatric specialty consultants and mental health nurses: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (consultant and nursing & midwifery drop downs)

Child and Adolescent Mental health Services: 07 March 2023 CAMHS | Turas Data Intelligence (nhs.scot)

The requested information on how many advanced paramedics, musculoskeletal physiotherapists and community link workers have been recruited since 1 April 2022 is not centrally held.

Information on how many paramedics and physiotherapists have been recruited since 1 April 2022 can be found on the following link:

NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (allied health professional drop down)

Question reference: S6W-16492

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on suicide prevention in each financial year since 2018-19, also broken down by NHS board.

Information on total spend on suicide prevention activity by individual Health Boards is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. Information on net mental health expenditure by individual Health Boards is published on the Public Health Scotland website Scottish health service costs under data files mental health expenditure Excel workbook . Note, however, that expenditure data is collected by broad specialties and does not identify suicide prevention work specifically. Suicide prevention will be an aspect of work across all mental health specialities.

Question reference: S6W-16483

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide a revised cost estimate for the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill.

Question reference: S6W-16487

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide any correspondence that it has had, since May 2021, with (a) NHS boards and (b) any relevant stakeholders, regarding reform of the (i) number, (ii) structure and (iii) regulation of NHS boards.

Question reference: S6W-16485

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Scottish National Party manifesto commitment to "develop MyNHS, a safe, simple and secure app that will help people access services directly and own their own health information".

In addition to the health and care information services that are already available to the public, we are currently in the process of developing a Digital Front Door. Digital Front Door acts as a direct response to Scottish National Party’s commitment to develop a ‘’MyNHS’’ App.

A key deliverable within the 2021 Digital Health & Care Strategy, the Digital Front Door will provide a way for people to access health and care information and control their data. It will also help people to conduct more health and care transactions online, including communicating with their health and care providers and managing their appointments.

Key workstreams are in place to develop changes to services, communications and engagement approach, undertake impact assessments and scope requirements for key areas such as identity verification. We have also considered the approaches taken internationally and within other parts of the UK.

Scottish Government has commissioned NHS Education Scotland (NES) as main delivery partner and initial planning, design and development is underway. The current commitment is to have the first version of the Digital Front Door in place by the end of this Parliament.

More information will be made available on this development here - https://www.digihealthcare.scot/our-work/digital-front-door/.

Question reference: S6W-16489

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Primary Care Improvement Plan.

As of March 2022, through Primary Care Improvement Plans and corresponding funding, we have recruited more than 3,220 whole time equivalent (WTE) multi-disciplinary team (MDT) members, working in GP practices and the community.

Supporting documents - Primary care improvement plans: summary of implementation progress - March 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

We are also committed to providing at least £170 million per year to deliver MDTs and will make additional funding available to support Agenda for Change pay increases for MDT staff.

We have amended regulations to include permanent vaccinations, pharmacotherapy and community treatment and care support for GP practices from 2022-23 onwards.

We continue to work with all partners to ensure we have a robust evidence base on the impact of the programme to support implementation of Primary Care Improvement Plans and future investment decisions in 2023-24.

Question reference: S6O-02138

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 April 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the Historic Environment Scotland sites that remain closed.

Question reference: S6W-16481

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards increasing NHS activity to 10% above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels.

Our £1 billion NHS Recovery Plan is taking forward our aim of increasing NHS capacity by at least 10% as quickly as is possible in order to address the backlog of care and meet the ongoing healthcare needs for people across the country. The Scottish Government publishes progress against the plan on an annual basis.

Last year there were over 1.2 million patients seen for an outpatient appointment, an increase of 8% compared to 2021, when over 1.1 million outpatients were seen.

Question reference: S6W-16488

Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 11 April 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff currently work within (a) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and (b) adult psychology, broken down by NHS board.

The Scottish Government remain committed to improving the mental health and wellbeing of Scotland’s population. Delivering this can only be achieved with the right workforce capacity and capability.

We have invested heavily in staffing in recent years, which is why both CAMHS and Psychology Services workforces have more than doubled under this Government.

Information on workforce numbers is publicly available through the Turas Data Intelligence system, including by NHS Boards, provided by NHS Education for Scotland: NHS Scotland Workforce Data